Slideshow Software and Cropping for best results?

I am trying to create a slide show for an event. I am about to purchase an HP w2408h. It has a resolution of 1920 x 1200. Obliviously I want to take advantage of the full resolution that the monitor can display. I started creating a slideshow with adobe elements and when I go to output it to wmv. It only lets me set the resolution to 800x600. Does anyone know of some better FREE software to do this with? I thought about just putting my pictures in a folder and letting the screensaver play them like a slideshow but I sort of want to put music with it.

I have one other question. Most of my pics are quite high resolution and are not setup to display on a wide screen monitor. I want to crop them so that there are no black edges during the slideshow. Should I just set the crop to my monitors resolution or should I just crop them to fit the aspect ratio of my monitor? Does it make any difference?

I am trying to create a slide show for an event. I am about to purchase an HP w2408h. It has a resolution of 1920 x 1200. Obliviously I want to take advantage of the full resolution that the monitor can display. I started creating a slideshow with adobe elements and when I go to output it to wmv. It only lets me set the resolution to 800x600. Does anyone know of some better FREE software to do this with? I thought about just putting my pictures in a folder and letting the screensaver play them like a slideshow but I sort of want to put music with it.

I have one other question. Most of my pics are quite high resolution and are not setup to display on a wide screen monitor. I want to crop them so that there are no black edges during the slideshow. Should I just set the crop to my monitors resolution or should I just crop them to fit the aspect ratio of my monitor? Does it make any difference?

not a windows user, but good old power point... umm i use a app called Photo Presenter.. i'm not sure if there is a winblows version or not.... you COULD just open your music player, and turn on your song, then do the screensaver thing... no reason that wouldnt work... the music should still play while a screen saver is on.

For those kinds of projects, I use a full out video editing program. Pinnacle Studio 11 works great for me and gives me complete control over the final results, including a choice of thousands of possibilities for fades/moves from shot to shot as well as picture-in-picture and ability to easily add audio and voice commentaries, scrolling credits and to finish it all off, a menuing system and ability to chapter the whole project.

For those kinds of projects, I use a full out video editing program. Pinnacle Studio 11 works great for me and gives me complete control over the final results, including a choice of thousands of possibilities for fades/moves from shot to shot as well as picture-in-picture and ability to easily add audio and voice commentaries, scrolling credits and to finish it all off, a menuing system and ability to chapter the whole project.